Turkey’s military on Wednesday imposed a curfew in parts of the southeast after at least 18 people were killed in pro-Kurdish protests over the government’s failure to act against ’jihadists’ attacking Kobani

Turkey's military on Wednesday imposed a curfew in parts of the southeast after at least 18 people were killed in pro-Kurdish protests over the government's failure to act against 'jihadists' attacking the Syrian border city of Kobani.

The disturbances were the worst outbreak of such pro-Kurdish violence in years and risked derailing Turkey's own fragile peace process with the Kurds.

In a move unprecedented since the deadliest days of the Kurdish insurgency in the 1990s, the army was deployed to impose a curfew in several cities in the east.

The protests were concentrated in the mainly Kurdish southeast but also flared in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities, with empty buses firebombed and protesters hurling stones at police.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has so far not intervened militarily against ISIL terrorists trying to take Kobani, to the fury of Turkey's Kurds.

Ten of the deaths came in Turkey's main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, where the most intense rioting took place overnight Wednesday, the government said.

Five of the deaths were blamed on clashes between Kurdish activists and supporters of the HUDA-PAR Kurdish extremist group which is sympathetic to ISIL.

The clashes caused extensive damage in the city with shop fronts burned out and buses set on fire.

The Turkish army has been deployed on the streets in parts of six cities including Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van to enforce an open-ended curfew.

In Diyarbakir, Turkish troops and tanks were patrolling the city of 1.5 million people and the usually thronged streets were deserted, an AFP correspondent reported.

Schools were closed in Diyarbakir until Monday and all flights into the city were cancelled.

In new violence Wednesday, several hundred demonstrators in the city broke the curfew to throw stones at police who responded with tear gas.
      
The world's largest stateless people, Kurds are spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Kurds have waged a deadly insurgency for three decades for self-rule in Turkey.

However, a peace process with the Turkish government appeared to be making progress until the Kobani standoff, and the latest protests threaten to derail the talks entirely.